The unofficial, unauthorized view of Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org. The Ancestry Insider reports on, defends, and constructively criticizes these two websites and associated topics. The author attempts to fairly and evenly support both.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Comparing the Old and the New

Saturday morning another uncertain indication showed up that beta.familysearch.org will go live this month. This comment showed up temporarily on the FamilySearch Wiki early Saturday morning:

The FamilySearch Wiki Engineering Team modified a link on this page so it will not break when the Family History Library Catalog changes in late December.

The comment and the modification disappeared before the end of the day.

Documentation on beta.familysearch.org goes through the features of the old FamilySearch.org and gives a report card, of sorts, noting differences or deficiencies with the new FamilySearch.org website. I’ve added my own candid take, below.

To you, my friends outside FamilySearch, remember that these are my personal opinions and I do not speak for FamilySearch.

To you, my friends inside FamilySearch, I mean no offense. I know you care for quality, are aware of the issues, and are working to fix them. I have faith in you and ever growing respect. Although you may hear some things here first, I only repeat publicly available information. My criticisms are offered as a service to our users.

The new website does not have a home button. I hear users saying they want it; I’m surprised FamilySearch hasn’t complied.

Search Records, Advanced Search, and RecordSearch pilot have all been replaced with Historical Records search. Surprising, there are no links to this central feature of the new FamilySearch.org website. None in the header. None in the footer.

Here’s an insider tip: Click the FamilySearch logo.

I wrote about the FHLC after the November release (here and here). Product Manager, Robert Kehrer, responded with additional information you’ll want to read. (Thanks, Robert!)

The new FamilySearch.org website provides no way to search Historical Books and no link to search them on the BYU website. There are links to individual titles in the Family History Library Catalog. The documentation states, “You cannot currently search the historical books directly.” I hope that means FamilySearch is planning on adding Historical Book search.

Google and other search engines do a far better job of searching other websites. Further, it is beyond FamilySearch’s ability to maintain a categorized directory of genealogy websites. With the FamilySearch Wiki, FamilySearch has given users the ability to provide, categorize, and maintain links to other websites.

The new website’s Ancestral File has Individual view only. Pedigree and family views are coming. Thankfully FamilySearch has concentrated on higher quality historical records and readying the new FamilySearch Tree for public use. Hopefully this meager effort to include Ancestral File is but a placeholder for the latter.

The 1880 U.S. Census is present on the new website, along with additional years! Some minor losses of functionality have occurred, including links to subscription websites, where the images were free for some FamilySearch accounts. (BTW, the image links on the old website no longer work. But I digress…)

The 1881 British Census is not available on the new website. Use the old one.

The 1881 Canadian Census is present, along with additional years!

As I’ve mentioned before, the good stuff—the extraction records—have been moved into FamilySearch Historical Records, available on the new website now. Patron submissions were moved to the new FamilySearch Tree. I’ll have a lot more to say about the IGI.

Not added yet. Users are instructed to use the old website. Ditto here my comments about Ancestral File.

The US Social Security Death Index was added to FamilySearch Historical Records last week!

The Vital Records Index is present, but incomplete. I tried one record from each of the five countries. Twenty percent of my teeny, tiny unscientific sample were missing. Has FamilySearch compared batch counts to know how many records are missing?

I don’t get it. If Historical Records are the central feature of the new FamilySearch.org website, then FamilySearch Indexing is its lifeblood. The FamilySearch Indexing page is buried two links under the home page. The first link is secret. The second is hidden.

Should you solve the mystery of the first, secret link, don’t bother clicking the big “FamilySearch Indexing” title or the large, beckoning image. The link is hidden after a couple of paragraphs into the page text.

Insider tip: Click Give Back in the row of links near the top of any page. Then click Get Me Started.

(On second thought, don’t get me started…)

“Share My Genealogy” is not present on the new website. Ditto my comment on Ancestral File.

Research Helps have been copied into the FamilySearch Wiki and in many cases improved. Click Learn, then search for the topic of interest.

Research Guidance is a virtual reference consultant found on the old FamilySearch.org website. “Chatty Cathy” (as we sometimes call her) asks you a series of questions about an ancestor and then gives you an ordered list of records to consult, based on the locale, time frame, and the vital event of your ancestor.

Because Research Guidance has long been the hidden gem, the Cinderella stepchild of the old FamilySearch.org website, I fear Cathy won’t find her way to the new website.

The Wiki is not really a part of the old website. It is part of the new website.

Ask a Question is a link to the Forums, also a new, not old, website.

The online research classes have been copied to the new website. Click on Learn, then click on a link you can’t see until you scroll the page down. Don’t scroll too far or the link will disappear off the top of the page. Don’t scroll too little or the link will not appear. Do a Goldilocks scroll. Don’t click “Research Courses.” The color looks like a link to me, but it is not. Keep reading, scrolling if necessary.

Insider Hint: To find hidden links, move your mouse around over possible spots. When the cursor changes (a pointing finger on most browsers), it is pointing to a link.

To find a nearby family history center, click on FamilySearch Centers, enter the location, and click Search. Notice the snazzy new map.

“The site currently does not provide information about genealogical institutes, university and home study courses on family history, online genealogical presentations, and upcoming genealogical conferences. Much of this information will be available in future updates of the site.”

This is redundant. I covered it in the Search Records menu.

It looks like the same Help Center software added a few years ago to the old website, and used on the new FamilySearch Tree website, is being used on the new site.

6 comments:

Well, that gives me about six months worth of things to think about, which, of course, will have to be crammed into one or two weeks. Thanks, (I mean this, not sarcastically) for all the info. It really does help to see the issues spread out. I am not sure some of the items you point out really matter, they may not be real losses since they were never very real assets. I will undoubtedly have more to say.

Thank you, AI for this summary. Another usability issue is that the new site's graphics block viewing such niceties as the Database List and search results for some operating systems and browsers. Each software change makes more links non-functional (such as what used to be the Log In link on the database-list page, and the 'delta' link for results preview), again for some operating systems and browsers.

Oh, and the change in blog site host software a month or so ago for blogs such as Mr. Tanner's splendid "Genealogy's Star" (and DearMyrt) also made the "comment" link non-functional for some operating systems and browsers.

Those without technical and financial resources to obtain computers updated to follow the famous-maker's planned obsolescence scheme are being left in the dust.

I really want to keep the download of the IGI controlled extraction data but it seems to be broken. I've emailed support, but no answer. And a lot of the IGI batch numbers now come up with nothing found, even when you try to display the whole batch without a surname or given name. These used to work. It was wonderful to get a batch downloaded, put in a database and then manipulated looking for connections. (sigh, ... seems to be all gone).

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The Ancestry Insider was a readers’ choice for the top four genealogy news and resources blogs, part of Family Tree Magazine’s “40 Best Genealogy Blogs” for 2010. He reports on the two big genealogy organizations, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. He was named a “Most Popular Genealogy Blogs” by ProGenealogists, and has received Family Tree Magazine’s “101 Best Web Sites” award every year since 2008. A genealogical technologist, the Insider has a post-graduate technology degree and holds a dozen technology patents in the United States and abroad. He has done genealogy since 1972 and has worked in the computer industry since 1978. He was Time Magazine Man of the Year in both 1966 and 2006. And he really is descended from an Indian princess.

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